Information Integrity: Why rights groups at COP30 are demanding ‘‘truth’’
In the opening plenary on Monday, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declared that the battle for truth is now just as critical as the fight to cut emissions.
Dubbing it the ‘‘COP of Truth, ’’ President da Silva called on COP30 to mark “a new defeat for climate denialists.” Many felt this was a veiled jibe toward US President Donald Trump, a climate denier.
As the half-time mark of the climate talks approaches, COP30 appears to be living up to the billing.
On Wednesday, 12 nations signed the first-ever ‘‘Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change’’ pledging to combat the avalanche of false content on climate change.
The declaration, unveiled under the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change, calls for concrete steps to dismantle networks of climate lies and shield evidence-based voices from harassment and attacks.
Countries, including Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, and Spain, committed to protecting those on the frontlines of truth, notably, environmental and climate journalists, scientists, and researchers.
Meanwhile, more than 200 civil society organisations from around the world, Indigenous Peoples, governors, mayors, faith leaders, agencies and companies have urged national government delegations to ‘‘champion a strong, ambitious, and mandatory decision at COP30 to uphold information integrity on climate change.’’
In an Open Letter, they demand that Big Tech, media, and the advertising sector stick to, and not alter, climate facts, particularly climate science and the impacts of burning fossil fuels on the planet.
What’s behind the truth push?
The organisations say that every falsehood delays climate action, translating into real harm: children breathing toxic air, families displaced by floods, and communities facing heatstroke and hunger. ‘‘The same playbook once used by Big Tobacco is now being weaponised by fossil fuel interests,’’ reads the Open Letter seen by Power Shift Africa.
For decades, vested economic and political interests, particularly those of the fossil fuel industry, have been organising and financing disinformation campaigns through greenwashing, sportswashing, and misleading advertisements, aimed at delaying climate policy and its implementation.
Read how TotalEnergies greenwashes its destructive activities.
Climate Truth on Trial
Today, between 80 and 89 percent of the world’s population wants their governments to do more about climate change. Yet, the calculated, aggressive and relentless production and dissemination of misinformation and disinformation often hold back climate action.
The rise of populist, nationalist, and climate-denier leaders like Donald Trump has coincided with growing anti-science rhetoric around the world, even shaping national climate policies. The US recently started the formal process to exit the Paris Agreement.
Read what the US’s withdrawal from the agreement means.
‘‘The world cannot let the ignorance of one man in the White House dictate the future of the planet,’’ says Mohamed Adow, the director of Power Shift Africa.
Mohamed adds: ‘‘We cannot allow our homes and livelihoods to be destroyed because of this ignorance. We should crack on with or without the US.’’
Rights groups say that by creating a false perception of public division and apathy, these campaigns derail effective climate policy and actively discredit renewable energy solutions, slowing the much-needed clean energy transition.
‘‘The degradation and pollution in the information ecosystem is not merely a climate crisis; it is a multi-faceted global emergency,’’ they argue in their petition to governments.
Studies by the International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) and Climate Social Science Network, reveal that organised climate obstruction activities are actively delaying the human response to the crisis, directly sabotaging international cooperation. This makes the Paris Agreement goals unattainable and puts the lives of millions at risk, particularly in poor, vulnerable countries in Africa and the Global South.
By pushing for information integrity, the groups want humanity to uphold the scientific consensus that human activity is responsible for causing climate change and that immediate, drastic action is required to avoid its worst impacts. Truth, the organisations insist, will ensure that policies and actions are grounded in scientific evidence and the urgency of the crisis, rather than disinformation.
The quest also aims to combat delaying tactics often propagated by the fossil fuel industry and their lobby groups to create a false perception of public division and uncertainty, obstructing rapid climate action and delaying the just energy transition.
Climate Justice and Equity
Countries and communities suffering the heaviest impacts of climate change today are the least responsible for historical emissions that disrupted the climate system. Most African countries are on the frontline of the climate crisis, due to their geographical location in the tropics.
Upholding information integrity is, therefore, considered a prerequisite for ensuring an equitable response to the climate crisis and the protection of the human rights of those most at risk. The petitioners say that justice and equity are not possible in a world that lacks the truth and facts.
The truth, they add, promotes informed decision-making by governments, such as the provision of resources, driving effective climate adaptation and mitigation action in communities and countries. It also enhances accountability by all actors, including business corporations.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has previously addressed deliberate misinformation targeting climate action, saying, “We must fight the coordinated disinformation campaigns impeding global progress on climate change.”